The Hindu Business Line : Stage set for Asian film festival in Pune

WHEN the curtains go up on the third Asian Film Festival in the city, from October 21 to 27, Puneites will be watching luminaries of the yesteryears including Shashi Kapoor, Aparna Sen, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, U.R. Anantmurthi as also the current crop of Bollywood heartthrobs in the city.

The festival will be held at City Pride Multiplex, Kothrud, in association with Asian Film Foundation, Mumbai. Shashi Kapoor would be inaugurating the festival on 21st and filmmaker Aparna Sen would be honoured with the Zenith Honors, instituted this year.

She would receive the award from Shashi Kapoor. Aparna Sen started her career with Satyajit Ray's Samapti after which she acted in several Hindi and Bengali movies. Her career in directing films began with the very famous film 36 Chowringhee Lane and has directed seven films in the last 15 years. Aparna's Sen new movie Park Avenue will be the inaugural film of the festival, the first time that this film is being screened in India. Amol Palekar, actor-director, said veteran director, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, who is being felicitated with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award on October 21 in New Delhi, would be honoured with a Special Award on October 24 here.

A portrait on Adoor Gopalkrishnan — Portrait of the Filmmaker — would be screened. Apart from that, three films of Adoor — Swayamwaram, Kathapurusham and Mukhamukham — would be shown.

The other attractions for the movie buffs include India's official entry this year for the Oscars, Paheli and other Oscar selection such as Swades, Black, Iqbal, Page 3 and Parinita. Marathi movies such as Sarivar Sari and Pailteer would also be premiered during the festival. Producer-Director Gajendra Aahire, Lata Narvekar and Shyam Joshi and Atul Soman would be present during the premiere. Films in Kannada, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese and Konkani will also be screened. Participations would also be from Japan, China, Iran, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Bhutan,Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, Lebanon, Tajakhistan, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Kirghis. Films from over 17 countries would be screened. Every year, one country is focused on during the film festival. In the past two years, the focus was on Taiwan and Kazakhstan. This year, Mongolian cinema would be the focus. Mother Kiss, Words from the Heart and Tumur of Mountain are the three movies from Mongolia to be screened. And the concluding film would be an Iranian film based on war in Iraq through the eyes of a child. The name of the film is Turtles can Fly and is directed by Bahoman Ghobadi.

Not to be left behind, Amol said students from film institutes from Asian countries could also participate in a competition which has been organised in Mumbai. In this contest, countries such as Singapore, Kazakhstan, Israel, Iran and India have participated with 17 diploma films. To help them promote their films, the Asian Film Festival will screen all their films in Pune.

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